


A Gift

by sultrybutdamaged



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, But in the happy ending sort of way, Canon Compliant, F/F, F/M, Minor Uhura/Spock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 12:13:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30021612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sultrybutdamaged/pseuds/sultrybutdamaged
Summary: "Will you miss me when you go to space?" Gaila asked.
Relationships: Gaila/Nyota Uhura
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	A Gift

**Author's Note:**

> A slightly different version of this fic was posted on Dreamwidth as part of the FFFC 10 Year Anniversary Fandom Battle Event for Week 1. I'm finally catching up with posting these over here too.

“Will you miss me when you go to space?” Gaila brushed Nyota’s bare arm with her fingers and pouted teasingly. 

When they’d first met, Nyota had taken Gaila’s constant flirting for deviousness, distracting the other cadets with her looks and sex appeal, then eviscerating them with the intelligence they hadn’t expected.She wouldn’t exactly have blamed her roommate if that were true -there had been Orion women in Starfleet for generations and yet the stereotypes about them still persisted, so if Gaila needed to use those stereotypes against people who would underestimate her, then good for her - but it made her uncomfortable, wondering all the time if Gaila meant the things she seemed to imply.But the truth had turned out to be much simpler:Gaila _was_ smart and ambitious; she was also sweet and sensual and liked to have fun.And she liked Nyota, in all senses of the word.

But right at that moment, she _was_ playing on Nyota’s feelings.

“There’s just as much of a chance that you’ll go into space first,” Nyota pointed out.She shifted the PADD on her lap, pretending to focus on the translation she needed to complete before she went into the lab that night.Gaila might be smart, but she wasn’t serious, and she was constantly coming up with ways to distract Nyota from her work.Most of them were innocent, like squishing herself into Nyota’s bed and playing with her hair while she worked; some were… not.“We have no idea where we’ll be assigned, or when.”

“You’ll be assigned to the Enterprise,” Gaila said, rolling her eyes.“Commander Spock wouldn’t dare refuse you.”Nyota must have tensed, because her friend stroked her arm again.“Shush, I’m not judging you.No one could ever think you got there on anything but talent and hard work.”

Nyota cut a sideways look at the other woman, whose face was as sincere as always.Gaila wasn’t judging her.Nyota just, occasionally, when she was feeling a little less than perfectly confident, judged herself.

Gaila probably deserved a little attention for reassuring her.Nyota set her PADD aside.“You’ll get a great assignment too,” she said. 

Probably not on the Enterprise, though, the competition for that was too strong.Nyota felt a twinge at the thought of their time as roommates coming to an end.Her friendship with Gaila - if that was the term for something that hovered always right on the line between platonic and more without fully crossing it - had been the biggest surprise of her time at the Academy.She’d been doubtful when they were assigned as roommates, confused when Gaila had seemed to want companionship despite their obvious differences, hesitant at the thought of becoming lovers when they still had to live together for two more years.And then there had been Spock, and Gaila’s succession of men, and a friendship that meant too much to risk it for something more delicate and uncertain.Their timing had never been right, but Gaila was still one of the most important people in Nyota’s life and a part of her wished there was a way they could continue living together as their careers moved forward, and figure out what this pull between them was.

An expression of similar regret flashed through Gaila’s eyes, and then she smiled, brushing away negativity like she always did.“Will you give me a goodbye present?” she asked, slim green fingers coming up to touch Nyota’s cheek.“When I go?”

Nyota laughed“Depends. What did you have in mind?”

Gaila bit her lip, apparently giving it some serious consideration, then sat up.“Ice cream,” she said firmly.

“As a goodbye present?That’s seems a little - “

“No, right now!”She jumped off the bed and began pulling on the uniform she’d discarded as soon as she came through the door.“Come on, you need a break from all that work.”

Nyota had only been “working” - that was, attempting a translation from Romulan to Klingon while batting away Gaila’s constant distractions - for an hour, but she still felt a smile tugging at her lips.“A _short_ break,” she said, compromising. 

“Fine, a short break,” Gaila said, but she was grinning.

Nyota let Gaila pull her to her feet, stumbling a little as she stood and nearly tripping into the other woman.Gaila steadied her, hands warm against her arms.Nyota knew better, but when they’d first met, she’d uncharitably considered the possibility that Orion pheromones worked on women too, because how else to explain how the draw she’d felt towards her roommate?But it wasn’t fair to blame this warmth on biochemistry; this was just Gaila.

“I’m going to give you an amazing goodbye present,” she promised impulsively.“Let me know as soon as you get your first assignment, because I am going to need time to prepare.”

“Yeah?”A slow smile curved Gaila’s cheeks, the green color deepening.“A special present?”

Nyota held her eyes and thought, just for a moment, _maybe_.

“A special present,” she said, and squeezed her friend’s hands.“Now come on.Ice cream.”

***

As it turned out, they had no time for goodbyes presents, special or otherwise.

Gaila was a bundle of excitement as they rushed towards Hanger 1 from the hearing, her days-long irritation over Kirk using her to defeat the Kobayashi Maru forgotten in the thrill of their first assignments.Nyota didn’t blame her.She knew she should be more worried about being thrust into space so suddenly, on a ship that would be staffed mostly with cadets, on their way to answer a distress call, but the only thought in her mind, over and over, was _space, finally_.The two of them pushed their way through the sea of red uniforms, Gaila tugging her by the hand, and got their assignments, and then Nyota was too distracted by hers to pay much attention to Gaila’s squeal of excitement or the tight squeeze of her fingers before they separated.Her focus was on finding Spock and getting him to overturn this terrible injustice.

The _Farragut_.Honestly.

But once Spock had ordered her reassignment, then Nyota had time to wonder about where Gaila had gone.With a quick glimpse towards the shuttle headed for the Enterprise’s space dock, which was only half-full, she pushed her way back through the crowd, scanning for bright red hair and green skin and listening for a musical voice.

She found Gaila at the Farragut’s shuttle.Of course.

“There you are!”Her friend took her arm, pulling her towards the line.“I was going to save you a seat, but I was worried you wouldn’t make it.”Her expression grew more serious.“Listen, Nyota, I know you must be disappointed about the Enterprise.I want to have words with your stick-up-his-butt boyfriend about that, cause you deserved it and we all know it.”She scowled, her obvious anger on Nyota’s behalf touching.“But it’s just a first assignment and at least we’ll be - “

“No,” Nyota said, cutting her off before she could say it.She stiffened her legs so Gaila couldn’t keep pulling her towards the shuttle.“It, um, it was a mistake.I am assigned to the Enterprise, Spock fixed it.So I just came to say goodbye.”

“Oh.”Clear disappointment flashed across Gaila’s face, but it didn’t last long.“Congratulations,” she said, like she really meant it.“I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks.”Nyota swallowed, suddenly wishing she hadn’t been so quick to run to Spock.Not really, of course; the Enterprise had been her dream since she’d seen the designs for it during her first week in the Academy.Starfleet’s new flagship.Of course she had to be on it.And Spock would be there, which wasn’t the point, but was a nice bonus.

But.

Leaving Earth was always going to mean breaking ties with the old - old patterns, old possibilities - and stepping into something new.She just hadn’t expected it to happen so fast, with so little chance to really make a choice.

“I’ll miss you,” she said, letting her voice crack a little.More than she usually would.“Maybe this will just be a short mission and we’ll be back on Earth in no time.”A distress call didn’t make that sound too likely.

Gaila’s smile softened.“I’ll miss you too,” she said.“But just think.Instead of a great goodbye, you can give me an amazing reunion gift when we’re back on Earth.”

“Oh, yeah?”Nyota smiled.“Ice cream again?”

Gaila studied her face for a moment.“No,” she said finally, in a decisive tone Nyota hadn’t heard from her before.Gaila teased and prodded, but always left the decisions to Nyota.“I was thinking more….hmm.”Apparently she made up her mind, because she was leaning forward and… oh.

After three years of back and forth, of innuendo and light touches and eyes full of suggestion, a first kiss in the middle of a crowded hanger surrounded by their entire class and on the verge of a crisis couldn’t have been perfect.But it was still a really great kiss.

“Think of that as a deposit,” Gaila said when she broke it off.Nyota blinked at her, a little dazed.Forget pheromones, Gaila didn’t need any extra help from them.“On my reunion present.”

“You don’t pay for presents,” Nyota finally said when she remembered how to speak.

Gaila shrugged.“Then think of it as a promise.”

***

Lieutenant Uhura knew as soon as they came out of warp in Vulcan’s orbit that the Farragut had been destroyed.She made note of it, along with all the other wrecked ships, and then she filed that information away to be dealt with later.There was a crisis on, a sudden promotion to deal with, her competence in deciphering Romulan transmissions suddenly more than just a way to show off in class.And there was Spock, too; beside the death of his mother and the destruction of his whole planet, her… her problem, her hopes, they didn’t rate.

Lieutenant Uhura was, she discovered during that one incredibly long day, a professional, and she handled herself brilliantly.

But when it was all over, Earth saved and Captain Pike rescued and the crew preparing to return home, then Nyota took out her PADD and with shaking fingers brought up the stats on the survivors of the fleet.

Every ship but the Enterprise had been rendered inoperable, but not all had been completely destroyed.Several, including the Farragut, had been left stranded wrecks, their surviving crew holding out with minimal remaining life support until they were rescued.Nyota’s fingers shook as she scanned down the list.

And then she breathed out a sigh of relief, closing her eyes and letting herself feel the stress of the last day all at once.

A promise, she thought, her fingers touching a single line, a single name.

She took a deep breath, and started planning the biggest gift she could think of.


End file.
